Excellent and Reputable LED Manufacturers

Indoor Growing Lighting
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Hi everyone!

I would like to try and compile a list of reputable LED manufacturers that aren’t common knowledge or ones that won’t show up on a standard “LED Manufacturer” google search or the “Top 10 LED Makers” lists.

I’ve got @dbrn32 who is going to help make the list, if anybody knows anyone else or has a recommendation, please post them in here. The manufacturer can make low budget or super high-end lights, it doesn’t matter. I would like hopefully see this permanently in the forum for all people to see when they come looking for recommendations so they don’t have to spend hours researching or asking as many questions.

Manufacturers:

BlackDog LED Flagship - Phytomax 2 1000 “1050 Watt, 930 μmol/m²s @ 29” w/ 4x4 area" $2,279.00 5 year warranty
-Kudos to blackdog, I had a friend who ordered 3 400 series phytomax lights, unfortunately they were out and on backorder for both 400 and 600’s so they offered a discount of $100 on a refurbished only unboxed 400 and $500 off on two of their 800 phytomax’s. These guys might be pricier than the competition, but their customer support and willingness to work with customers seems to be amazing!

Fluence Flagship - Spyder2i “630 Watts, 1060 μmol/m²s @ 6” w/ 4x4 area" $1,500.00 1 year warranty

Timber Grow Light Flagship - Fatty VS “900 Watt, 905 μmol/m²s @ 18” w/ 5x5 Area, available in 3k, 3.5k and 4k spectrum" $1299.00 3 year warranty

Grow Northern Flagship - Telos 10 “300 Watt, 470 μmol/m²s @ 23” w/ 80cm x 80cm Area, 3k" £433.33, 3 year warranty

ChilLED Tech Flagship - GEN2 Commercial 800 Watt “800 Watts, 1000+ μmol/m²s @ <32” mounting height w/ a 4x4 space covered" $1,999.00
Boasts tons of useful features including white viewing mode.

-I emailed chilled tech about their PPFD readings at specific heights for this model and I’m currently awaiting a response to provide a more accurate statement for this model.

-Received a response in a timely manner from the company, they are currently awaiting parts to construct more LEDS and will actually be publishing PPFD charts on their website shortly!

Amare Technology Flagship - SolarPro SP900 (Pro9) “901 Watts 980 μmol/m²s @ 24” Mounting Height / 788 μmol/m²s @ 36" Mounting Height, Covers 4x4 Area, 5-Year Warranty" $1,995.00

-They responded back to my email to provide these specifications and also mentioned they would be releasing the SolarBar SB800 (Bar8) this coming week. Designed for commercial cannabis cultivation, it features efficiency and flexibility with up to 2.7J electrical efficiency with a recommended mounting distance of the plant canopy of 6-60" with their optical lenses that can be mounted on their lights. (Heights without Lense: 6"-18" / Height with lenses 24"-48") giving it the ability to accommodate both single and multi-tier setups.

SolarBar SB800 (Bar8) - Watts 898W (dimmable), Spectrum is their 95cri enhanced white spectrum, 7.18A @ 110V, 3.59A @ 220V,
Heat: 122F@898W
Electrical Efficiency: 2.7J@660w
PPF: 1780 μmol,
PPFD (4x4): 1100μmol/m²s@660w & 1280μmol/m²s@898w
LEDs: Samsung LM301B/Olson Square Series
Drivers: Meanwell (Dimmable)
Certications: DLC and Pending UL
Coverage: (Flower) 4x4@6-9" & 5x5@18" (Veg) 5x8 @ 20"
5-Year Warranty

Keep in mind the above listed are the highest end products each company produces and their respective prices. They also offer lower-end LEDs that are perfect for growers on here as well that either don’t have the budget or don’t want to pay high prices for LEDs.

μmol/m²s (Often referred to as PPFD on reputable company’s websites) required for the bottom threshold of optimal photosynthesis without Co2 supplementation:
18/6 schedule: 339.5 μmol/m²s (Veg) - DLI of 22
12/12 schedule: 509.25 μmol/m²s (Flower) - DLI of 22

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@dbrn32 will give you all the info you need. :wink:

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You might want to clarify - are you looking for manufacturers of actual LEDs, or LED lights (strips/boards/fixtures/etc)?

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Timber Grow Lights

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Black dog flagship model is phytomax 2 1000 watt. As per their website “1602 umols per second at 1050 watts”. MSRP $2279.

Fluence bioengineering flagship model spydr 2i. As per their website 1700 umols per second at 630 watts. MSRP $1500-$1565

Fluence wins efficacy at 2.7 umol per joule vs 1.53.

Fluence wins par per dollar at 1.08 umol per $1 vs .7 umol per $1.

Fluence wins total light output at 1700 umols per second vs 1602 umols per second.

Fluence wins power consumption at 630 watts vs 1050 watts.

Comparing each company’s top light, the fluence light is cheaper, more efficient, has more light, and draws less power.

Not to be outdone, the black dog light has a 5 year warranty vs the fluence light a 3 year warranty.

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Mostly looking for manufacturers to check out, and then list their high end models on here. Fluence I never would have heard of if @dbrn32 hadn’t mentioned them to me one day.

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Know of any other good manufacturers @dbrn32?

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Pacific light concepts, horticulture lighting group, chilled tech, amare

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Where do you find these companies? Do you have a magazine subscription or something?

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Lol, no magazine. Just been at it for a while.

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Guess you can’t really substitute much for time in this field

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For anyone watching this thread, I added a few more LED’s to the list, and even received some responses from some of the companies. So far, every company listed in the first post that has responded has done their best to provide the information asked for and I have actually enjoyed speaking with them.

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Nice work. I just wanted to point out to others that not all of your ppfd measurements are for the same space, and are ppfd average.

As long as we get total flux we can calculate ppfd average for any space.

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Mind if I ask how? I was under the impression the only way to measure PPFD was to use a PAR meter since it’s measured at a given height vs. PPF which is measured at the source of the light.

To my current understanding, PPF is the amount of photons, or intensity of light, emitted from the source, and PPFD is the intensity of light thats hitting the plant’s canopy from a given height over a particular area, most commonly measured in a square meter.

I say commonly because some will take a light footprint that is larger than a square meter, most commonly for a vegetative stage light footprint.

Is there a formula or kind of a general rule of thumb used to calculate PPFD?

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There sure is. Ppfd is nothing more than ppf per area, shown in umols per second per square meter. Go back and look, most will specify “ppfd average”. When you buy any of those lights, you will not get the same reading at every point in your space. The single point readings will be higher than average wherever the greatest light source density is, and lower than average wherever the lowest light source density is.

Because I know timber gives you all of the numbers, you can crunch numbers there easily. This is also what makes all of the advertising the Amazon lights do garbage. They give you a single point reading directly below the light and it looks reasonable. But it’s no correlation to the total amount of light put into the space.

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Oh wow, well thank you for teaching me that, I knew that normal lights like HIDs etc all had kind of a cone dispersion that was weaker the towards the edges, and I assumed LEDs gave a more uniform coverage ie as in straight down from the led was the same across the entire space at any given height. Would you be willing provide me an example of it being applied say with a light that gives off a ppf of 1,500 umols?

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Most of the leds if not all you listed will be more uniform. There’s multiple light sources and such a little more balanced.

Example… a 5x5 is 25 square feet or 2.322 square meters. 1500 umols per second over 2.322 should give you ppfd average of 646 umols per second per square meter.

Things like light spill, reflection, or other variables will probably put a little wiggle room in there. But it should be a solid number to work with.

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Thanks!

So, I guess my final question would be how does height play into the equation, if at all.

Im sorry for asking so many questions about this, something just isn’t clicking in my head and Im sure eventually it will after I give it enough thought.

It just doesnt make sense to me that a light giving out 1500 umols would then put out 1500 umols average over 1 square meter.

Not because the math doesnt make sense, but because that would just be insane to have that kind of output from an led.

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I dont think anyone would spend that kind of money for that kind of space. You’re at saturation levels even with 1500 ppm co2

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Height works in with the inefficiency of reflection or light spill. No matter how high your light is you’re still putting the same amount of light into space. If it’s in open space, higher light is the more you lose outside of area. Or, even in something like a tent, you dont get 100% of light that bounces off a wall back to your canopy.